The Sunday Times lifestyle | 12 July 2009 | Jocelyn Lee

Indeed, the three shows preceding The Ultimatum featured way more down-to-earth characters engaged in humdrum, everyday activities such as going to school, playing table tennis and keeping house. Viewers could identify with the characters and the plotlines.

All three serials fared better than The Ultimatum despite starring mostly second- string artists, newcomers and veteran character actors.

My School Daze was about primary school children and their kiasu parents, and starred Chen Hanwei, Terence Cao and Rui En. It had an average of 986,000 viewers from April to May.

Table Of Glory was an idol drama which revolved around table tennis. Its stars, Joshua Ang and Dai Yangtian, are promising actors whose track records as marquee names are as yet unproven. It attracted an average of 1,016,000 viewers in April.

With a median 1,076,000 viewers, Housewives’ Holiday, which aired in March, fared best of all three. The dramedy starred veteran actresses Hong Huifang, Xiang Yun and Ann Kok playing housewives with problems such as unfaithful husbands and nosey in-laws.

Obviously, viewers had no trouble identifying with such dramas dealing with real- life issues.

Source: The Sunday Times

Categorised in My School Daze 书包太重, The Straits Times.